Page 18 of Renegade Kingdom
“But it has to be his decision,” Ryder added. “Not ours.”
Dean was quiet for a moment, his jaw working. “Before we headed to Arik’s training camp, Damon told me he was considering ending things. That he’d rather die than let the nightmare take over completely.” He met my eyes. “If we offer him the bite, we’re offering him hope. A reason to keep fighting. And if it doesn’t work...”
“If it doesn’t work,” Tank said gravely, “he dies fighting instead of surrendering. That’s not nothing.”
“But what if the bite makes the nightmare stronger?” I asked. It was the question no one wanted to address, but someone had to. “We keep talking about the two extremes. Either the wolf kills the nightmare, or Damon dies in the attempt. But there’s a third option. What if the nightmare wins and gets access to a beast’s power?”
Silence fell over the group. No one had an answer.
“Then we honour what our brother wants,” Dean said finally. “And we end it for him.”
The words hung in the air, heavy and final. I looked at each of them in turn. Dean with his grim determination, Maddox with his desperate hope, Ryder with his careful pragmatism, Tank with his steady calm. They were all willing to make this choice. To take this risk.
Part of me worried we were being rash. That we were making decisions in the aftermath of trauma that we’d regret when our heads were clearer. But Dean was right. We didn’t have the luxury of time. Damon was drowning, and we had to throw him a lifeline before it was too late.
“We talk to him,” I said. “After the council meeting. We lay out the options and let him decide.”
They nodded, and something in the tension between us eased slightly. At least we had a direction. At least we had a plan.
An hour later, we gathered in the captain’s cabin for the war council.
The space felt too small for all of us. My four mates arranged themselves around me. Two of the freed Endless had been elected as representatives—a stern-faced woman named Vera and a younger man called Soren who kept looking at me like I might sprout wings at any moment. Three of Rhidian’s crew stood near the door, their expressions carefully neutral.
And Fizzle hovered at the edge of the room, his wings beating in an agitated rhythm. I hadn’t invited him, but he’d come anyway. I couldn’t bring myself to throw him out.
“Right,” I said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Let’s figure out what we’re doing.”
The representatives went first. Almost half of the freed Endless wanted to leave. They wanted nothing more to do with fighting, with war, with any of it. They just wanted to find somewhere safe to exist.
“The ship,” I said. “We can give them the ship. It’s not ideal, but it’s mobile. They can stay ahead of Arik’s forces, resupply at friendly ports…”
“There aren’t many friendly ports left,” one of Rhidian’s crew interrupted. “Most of the realm has either fallen or is about to.”
“What about the Summer Court?” someone else suggested. “It’s the last court still holding out. Surely…”
“No.” The word came out sharper than I intended. Every eye turned to me, and I forced myself to take a breath. “The Summer Court isn’t safe. Not for us.”
“Why not?”
Maddox shifted uncomfortably beside me, and I saw his hand move instinctively to cover the marks on his arm. The marks that branded him as the Summer Court heir.
“Because they’ll want to reclaim what Maddox carries,” I said simply. “If we go there, they’ll try to kill him to get it back. The Summer Court isn’t an option.”
The representatives exchanged uneasy glances.
“Then what about the Autumn Court?” Soren asked. “You freed our people. Arik’s on the backfoot. If we struck now, pushed his forces from behind…”
“The Autumn Court is lost.”
Everyone turned to look at Fizzle. His voice was heavy with something I couldn’t quite identify. Grief, maybe. Or resignation.
“What do you mean, lost?” Dean demanded.
“I mean there’s nothing left to reclaim,” Fizzle said. “The royal family is gone. The court’s power has been returned to the land. There is no throne to take, no heir to rally behind. The Autumn Court as you knew it no longer exists.”
Silence fell over the room, thick and stunned. This was new information. One more thing that Fizzle had been holding back. Or at least holding back from me. How much had Rhidian known?
“Then where?” Vera asked. “Where can we possibly go that Arik won’t follow?”
